About us

How it began

In the winter of 1989, in the seaside town of Port Elliot, near the mouth of the Murray River, the writer and crossword fan Tess Brady solved a literary crossword she thought was so bad that she decided to show the paper what it should look like.

That summer her seaside cottage filled with artists, writers and university students whose holiday job became creating word and visual puzzles for the newspapers of Adelaide and Melbourne. Out of this flurry of activity evolved Snodger Puzzles.

The name Snodger came from a word used in the first crossword puzzle. It is an old Australian word used by CJ Dennis in a poem where he declares it to be ‘a snodger of a day’.

Snodger continues to make specialist crosswords each week for weekend newspapers, though now it is based in Clunes, in rural Victoria.

The company has used the changing skills of Tess and her daughter, Catherine. The company has broadened its entertaining non-fiction media work to include documentary series for TV and Radio.

Tess Brady

Born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1948 Tess currently lives in Clunes, rural Victoria.

Tess has studied at the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, Exeter University, UK, and Deakin University. She has an honours degree in Philosophy, a Masters in Educational Linguistics and a Doctorate in Writing.

She has taught Writing at the University of South Australia, Griffith University and Deakin University. With Associate Professor Nigel Krauth she was founding editor of TEXT which she co-edited for nine years.

Tess was a founding member of Creative Clunes Inc and for nine years the Artistic Director of Clunes Booktown Festival. Tess maintains a strong interest in booktowns, tourism and the creative industries.

Tess researched and interviewed Australian writers in the What I Wrote television series and has acted as script editor for the Journey Through Asian Art and the Legal Briefs series.

Tess has been published in a number of genres including Children’s Picture Books, Adult Radio Drama, Self Help Books, Writing and Crime Fiction.

Tess runs the print office for Snodger Media.

Catherine Gough-Brady

Catherine began creating the ever popular Codewords in that first summer. She has been making them ever since.

Catherine also creates TV documentaries. With Snodger Media, she has created three TV documentary series for ABC TV, all aimed the youth market.

Catherine creates video works for specific projects, including ‘Three Photographers’, which premiered at Adelaide International Film Festival and screened in Australia and South Korea as part of the George Rose exhibition.

Catherine Gough-Brady also creates audio works that combine real and fictional elements. She has created 11 radio features for ABC Radio National. Her audio work has been funded by the Australia Council.